BLUES managing director Karren Brady today called on Birmingham Chamber of Commerce policy boss Jerry Blackett to resign after the full details of the business group's links with the NEC emerged.

The call for Mr Blackett to stand down followed a 53 per cent vote by Chamber members in favour of the NEC's bid for a super-casino, the latest business group to back the exhibition centre.

But today Ms Brady declared the vote invalid following the revelation that the Chamber has a 50 per cent shareholding in the NEC's management company.

Birmingham City Council, which is still to decide which of the casino bids to back, confirmed that 50 per cent of the shareholding in National Exhibition Centre Ltd, was held by the Chamber, with the council owning the other half.

The Chamber also owns 125 ordinary shares of #1 each in the National Exhibition Centre (Developments) PLC, a company set up to provide an extra 30,000 square metres of exhibition space in four new halls.

Ms Brady said: "I am extremely disappointed and dumbfounded at the Chamber's lack of clarity over their links with the NEC.

"To my mind, they have deliberately misled the public. They have either decided not to tell the world of the shareholdings they have and what this entitles them to, or, even worse, they don't quite know these full details themselves."

The Mail described the Chamber as "joint owners" of the NEC in a news report on March 1. This description, and another of "close financial links", was denied by the Chamber in a letter published in the Mail yesterday.

Today's reversal of these facts, confirmed by the city council and NEC, have shocked observers.

"To have hidden any of these details is appalling. To have misled the public and the editor of the Birmingham Mail is worse. But to have been naive and not to have under-stood the detail of their links is incredible.

"A number of people will be calling for Jerry Blackett's head over this. I think he should do the honourable thing and resign now."

Commenting on the result of the Chamber's ballot over the super-casino controversy, Ms Brady added: "It's hardly surprising that a slender majority of members voted to back the Chamber's recommendation for the NEC to get the casino.

"But that this has happened when the Chamber is pretending to have no interest and no links makes the vote invalid.

"What's particularly annoying is that the Chamber has made this all look like a battle between the NEC and Blues.

"It is not. It is a battle for Birmingham and the West Midlands region against the whole of the UK, and unless the scheme which most closely reflects Government requirements is backed by all players then we have no chance in hell of winning.

"That scheme is the one put forward by Blues surrounding a new stadium and super-casino in Small Heath, a project that will create thousands of jobs, tens of millions of pounds of investment and the wholescale regeneration of one of the poorest areas in Birmingham.

"It is a scheme backed by the people of Birmingham, not just by men in pin-stripe suits who have interests in a weaker alternative outside the city."

The Chamber's Press and PR Manager John Lamb said any shareholdings were ancient and dormant and had no financial value.

"There is no need for Jerry Blackett to resign or anything. All he has done is take a vote from our members.

"We own half of the management company of NEC Ltd. We derive no financial gain from that association but we do appoint half of the non-executive directors on the board. There is no financial gain from having half of the management company."

Mr Lamb said he had no details of any shareholdings in the NEC (Developments) PLC at this stage.